Glenn A. Black, 1900-1964

Abstract

GLENN A. BLACK, archaeological field di( J rector for the Indiana Historical Society, died unexpectedly from a heart attack in Evansville, Indiana, on September 2, 1964. Born in Indianapolis August 15, 1900, Black attended public schools in that city and graduated from Arsenal Technical High School. He entered the field of archaeology before there were abundant opportunities for formal training he commented that he taught at the only university he ever attended and was, like many colleagues of his generation, essentially self-taught and drawn to prehistory by early collecting activities, a sense of problem, and an awareness of the past that was slipping beyond recall. The level of his achievements was recognized by the award of an Sc.D. from Wabash College in 1951. Black's field experience was largely confined to Indiana, but his career spanned the years during which prehistoric research attained some degree of maturity, and he had an important role in this development. His ever-present concern with raising professional standards was reflected in his having been a founder of the Society for American Archaeology and having held nearly every office in the organization (Vice-President, 1939-40; Council Member, 1940-41; President, 1941-42; Treasurer, 194751). His systematic dissection of the Nowlin Mound in southeastern Indiana and the subsequent report remain as significant landmarks in the history of American field archaeology. When archaeologists were beginning to perceive the richness of prehistory in the eastern United States and to define the problems that motivate research to this day, he was an active participant at every major conference. A sustained interest in new approaches to field methodology is evidenced by his having been the first prehistorian to test systematically the potential of the proton magnetometer on a New World site; this was supported by two National Science Foundation grants. Less well-known, at least to the more recent generation of archaeologists, but of importance to developing interests in the 1930's and 1940's, was his association with a small Indiana-centered group concerned with the anthropological evaluation of the Walam Olum, the purported migration legend of the Delaware Indians. Sustained by the active interest and participation of Eli Lilly, support was provided for the University of Michigan's Ceramic Repository, a dendrochronological lab at the University of Chicago, and numerous field projects in several eastern states. Additionally, fellowship grants ultimately resulted in the establishment of an anthropology department at Indiana University. Black's affiliation with the Indiana Historical Society began in the early 1930's. After a training period at the Ohio State Museum with H. C. Shetrone and contact with Warren K. Moorehead, he inaugurated a program of archaeological survey and excavation that took him into almost every sector of Indiana. His early publications reflect a lifelong interest in field techniques and respect for small detail. Probably no more precise description of mound structure is in print than that contained in the Nowlin Mound report. Black was intrigued by the possibility of prehistoric-historic continuities, and surveys were undertaken in Allen and St. Joseph counties, the scene of early trading posts, but his efforts were abortive. This experience led him to believe that future investigations in this direction were fruitless in Indiana. Since he was the only archaeologist in Indiana for most of his professional life, he directed the accumulation of a tremendous reservoir of data, all of which he systematically maintained. In 1938, the Indiana Historical Society purchased the Angel site, a large Middle Mississippi village near Evansville. Though the primary objective was to preserve this important resource from urban encroachment, Black viewed this acquisition as offering a unique opportunity for longterm study of a single archaeological context, and he devoted 27 years to the study of this site. Excavations were undertaken during almost every one of these years: first, with a large WPA crew and later with the assistance of students enrolled in a summer field course. Work was continuing in a large truncate mound at his death. Needless to say, millions of material items, hundreds of houses, and massive amounts of other evidence for human occupation were recovered, and Glenn became as much a part of the site as the villagers who occupied it some five centuries earlier. He had all but completed